KWTX
May 15, 2008
http://www.kwtx.com/home/headlines/18981259.html
In just five years, a polygamist sect transformed 1,700 acres of West Texas scrubland near Eldorado into a bustling ranch with a limestone temple, three-story log cabins, woodworking shops and a dairy.
The Associated Press reports the property was purchased for just $700.00.
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The assessed value of the property now is $20.5 million.
The male members of the group quarried the limestone for the Temple and built the enormous cabins with their own hands, AP reports, but where they got the money for building materials, dump trucks, rock-cutting equipment an other supplies is something of a mystery.
Court-appointed attorney Jeff Shields, who is studying the sect's finances, says an investigation is underway into who funded the complex.
Records show the sect paid $424,000 in property taxes last year, or about 18 percent of Schleicher County's annual revenue.
Sect spokesman and attorney Rod Parker says he doesn't know how the ranch and equipment were purchased or why the group never sought tax-exempt status.
Four men listed on Yearning for Zion corporate documents have no listed phone numbers in Texas.
The sect has been in the spotlight since the state raid last month, during which more than 460 children were removed from the compound because of allegations of physical and sexual abuse.
About 50 of those children are now housed at Waco's Methodist Children's Home.
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